Of 89 model villages, 36 will soon be handed over to families affected by the 2010 floods in Punjab. "These model villages are being built with funds allocated by the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for Tameer-e-Pakistan. About Rs 1.55 billion were donated by people through relief funds," official sources told APP on Sunday.
The government had provided official land for 17 model villages, while for the rest of 19 villages, land was acquired from various sources.
Sources maintained that model villages had all amenities of life, including water supply, sewerage, dispensaries, schools and technical institutions. They said an amount of Rs 12 billion had already been disbursed among 252 flood affected families through the Wattan cards scheme. Every family got Rs 20,000 under the scheme.
They said the government was giving high priority to development of infrastructure in flood affected areas and for the purpose, it was spending Rs 1.2 billion on restoration of roads, while for restoration of irrigation system in flood-hit areas, Rs 2.75 billion was being utilised. Besides, free fertiliser and seed worth Rs 2.66 billion had already been provided to the affected farmers.